Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    MANY scriptwriters and novelists have described the power of artificial intelligence (AI) as a double-edged sword in their films and fictions. As people are paying more attention to AI, a forum featuring the opportunities and challenges of AI development in China was held at the Wuzhou Guest House during the 2017 China (Shenzhen) IT Summit yesterday.

    “Regarding Baidu’s DNA, when we built it as a search engine, we tried many ways to make it understand users’ intentions — what users really want when searching,” said Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and CEO.

    He said that 10 years ago many people believed AI was useless because it didn’t have any business value, but time has changed and the impossible is now possible.

    Li said that Baidu set up the Institute of Deep Learning in 2013 because he was sure that AI represented the future. “If the Internet industry was the appetizer, then AI would be the main dish. AI isn’t part of the Internet industry or the third phase of the Internet industry. Instead, it will lead a technological revolution comparable to the industrial revolution,” he said.

    According to Li, the ways that people communicate with their tools will be changed by AI. “Nowadays we have user manuals for every tool, but in the future we won’t have to learn how to use a tool. Instead, the tools will know what we need from them because AI will enable them to understand our language,” he said.

    Tencent’s co-founder and CEO, Pony Ma, said that AI is powerful because it endows machines with self-learning skills. He took AlphaGo as an example, saying that AlphaGo can teach itself Go-playing rules by simulating billions of games on its computer, which is far beyond what a Go player could get from his or her experiences.

    “AI could be applied to many fields if we build simulators that enable machines to explore the rules and gain experiences themselves, such as simulating different situations for an AI-powered vehicle to learn to drive by itself,” he said.

    Guo Wei, chairman of Digital China, said that people have to consider the consumption of resources when bringing AI products from the lab to the market. “Somebody told me that AlphaGo consumes 2 tons of coal to play one game, but a human player only consumes 2 meals,” he said.

    According to Guo, it’s impossible for AI to replace human beings, but AI could provide some functions to help increase people’s efficiency. “The invention of AI is just like the invention of sewing needles in ancient times. People invented new tools to improve their lives and provide services for themselves,” he said.

    The China IT Summit has been held in Shenzhen annually since 2009. This year’s summit, with forums and keynote speeches under the theme of “New Era of Intelligence,” was attended by more than 100 leading IT entrepreneurs, scholars and investors in China.